A network of abortion-rights activists in Mexico is finding ways to offer assistance to women in the United States affected by recently imposed abortion bans in some states -- including shipments of abortion pills.
This healthcare model, in which no travel, clinics or prescriptions are needed, has sparked a surge of requests for help from American women since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion last year. The model was developed by Mexican activists through decades of facing abortion bans and restrictions in most of Mexico’s 32 states.
Marea Verde Chihuahua is an organization that has supported reproductive rights in northern Mexico since 2018. Staff provide virtual guidance, as well as shipments of abortion pills for women who want to terminate a pregnancy on their own.
Organizer Marcela Castro says to safely advise women on self-managed medical abortions, she and her colleagues were trained to become “acompañantes” -- capable of serving
as a guide and partner, whether in person or from long distance. They have carefully studied national abortion guidelines and they know by heart some protocols established by the World Health Organization.
Since they do not charge for the help they provide, most “acompañantes” need jobs outside the organizations where they volunteer. Among them are lawyers, psychologists and other professionals. Over the years, they have created a nationwide network that has secured abortion access for Mexican and foreign women, whether or not abortion is legal where they live.
“We are ordinary women working for reproductive justice,” Castro said. “We seek what the State has denied us out of prohibition.”
Mexican women face a scenario that resembles the U.S., where more than a dozen states – including Texas -- have imposed sweeping abortion bans. Unless it’s justified under certain exceptions, abortion is considered a crime in two-thirds of Mexico’s states.
Most women from the U.S. contact Marea Verde Chihuahua through social media or by someone’s referral. Most communicate in Spanish, though the acompañantes are able to assist English speakers as well.